


Saviors of Dundrasil

by sageandfoolishwisdom



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Dragon Quest XI Act II Spoilers, Gen, Minor ones, Time Travel, but still, guess what it's self indulgent au time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29171502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageandfoolishwisdom/pseuds/sageandfoolishwisdom
Summary: Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder pealed like a funeral toll. Dundrasil was under attack.The Fall of Dundrasil—with a twist.Or, time travel is much more fun when you've got friends along for the ride.
Kudos: 21





	Saviors of Dundrasil

**Author's Note:**

> hi!
> 
> this is a prologue to one of my many time travel aus for this game. the full thing may or may not get written, depending on how much time/motivation I have, but this stands on its own as it is.
> 
> many thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, who, despite not having played the game, lets me ramble about it to her and bounce ideas off her.
> 
> without further ado, on with the show!

Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder pealed like a funeral toll. Dundrasil was under attack. 

Monsters filled the sky and surged up against the wall, clawing through the stone. People screamed and ran inside, looking for somewhere, anywhere, to hide. They locked themselves in cupboards and barricaded the doors. They all knew what had happened to Zwaardsrust, and knew that they likely wouldn’t survive. 

Banners and stalls set up for the celebrations lay overturned in the streets, hastily abandoned when all saw what was coming. The streets themselves were quiet, a waiting quiet, a quiet that cried for help. The monsters were coming. 

The soldiers at the gates were quickly overrun as the beasts forced their way inside. They pushed through the empty streets, leaving behind a wake of rubble, and headed towards the castle. If some thought it strange that they weren’t hunting down the stragglers, they counted themselves lucky and ignored it. 

Back at the castle, guards were pushing the royalty to safety. The fiends couldn’t have picked a better day to attack, if their goal was to topple the kingdoms of Erdrea. As they ran, they could hear the screams of those at the castle gates and moved faster. 

And then they heard the cries. Not human now, but monster. A spark, and a wall of fire flared up, just beyond the castle gates. Wind fanned the flames, pushing them towards the sea of monsters. What they touched, they burned to a crisp, turning monsters to ash. Where the castle guards lay, a soft green glow surrounded the fallen, knitting together torn flesh and mending broken bone. Those still conscious would later give descriptions of just two young mages there, holding all the monsters back and healing the wounded. 

The flames burned everything in their path, cleansing the streets around the castle, and giving those there a reprieve from the onslaught, while inside, another battle brewed. 

Fiends clawed their way through the castle, and where guards fought them, they found their flagging strength bolstered by a sudden spell, and where no guards were, the monsters were quickly taken care of. Those who were looking would have seen a jester and a young man swiftly killing the beasts. No one would claim to know them, later saying they’d seemingly materialized out of thin air.

The king had made it to the sewers, where a passage promised escape. Monsters dogged his heels as he pushed his family through. He couldn’t hold them back much longer; his strength was failing and his defences weakening, when a soldier with an ax and a shield appeared by his side. Much too busy to question this, the king and the soldier dispatched the monsters with ease. As soon as the monsters were dead, the soldier left without a word, leaving the king to wonder who it was. 

Heliodor’s king fought in the dungeons too, attempting to get to his daughter. But what awaited him was no mere monster. A strange man attacked him there, only for his spell to be deflected by the sword of one who could be barely more than a boy. The sorcerer and the boy had fought for mere moments and yet an eternity, it seemed, when the man fled, disappearing into a swirl of smoke. The boy, too, was gone the moment after. 

Where the queen and princess had fled, they found they could not escape their pursuers. They’d gotten out of the castle, but quickly were surrounded by the beasts. The queen was carrying the babe, and the princess much too young to properly fight, so all they could do was try to run.

Suddenly, from behind, a spear struck through the heart of one of the monstrous steeds, cutting it down where it stood. A young woman leaped over the fading body, wielding her spear with such quick strikes as to fell the monsters in mere moments. She said not a word, but guided the queen and her charges to the safety of some soldiers before leaping back into the fray. 

Where the city walls were falling to the claws and teeth of the beasts, a bright light appeared. The light burned, killing all the fiends that it touched with its brilliance. Some would later say the caster of the spell was an old man, face lined with age and yet spry enough to kill the monsters in an instant.

In the streets, the mysterious warriors dived in to give those fleeing a chance to escape, knives and spears darting in to fell a beast whenever there was an opening. Onlookers saw the group working together as one, a unit so used to one another that there was little need for speech. Spells reinforced them if they flagged, and strengthened their attacks. Fire and ice flew around them as they fought, in a deadly dance. 

But the monsters kept coming, the skies filled with the flapping of wings and harsh cries. It was as if every fiend on the continent had descended on Dundrasil, and wouldn’t be leaving until it was razed to the ground. 

Then, in a burst of brilliance so bright as to make those watching wonder if the sun had risen just to shine over the city, a golden sword made of light cut the monsters down from the sky in one fell swoop, their bodies fading before they hit the ground. Lightning struck the stragglers as a magnificent winged creature, as far removed from any monster as was possible, swooped out of the clouds. 

Those looking would swear that they saw the Mark of the Luminary behind it, glowing gold and brilliant. Others would attest to seeing a figure atop it, holding aloft a sword streaked with the same lightning that felled the beasts. A few, those with especially keen eyes, would even say they saw a group of warriors there. A particularly devout minority would swear to Yggdrasil Herself that it was the Luminary of old, returned in the flesh to save them. 

Dawn broke, and with it, the few monsters not already dead or dying vanished, fleeing from the rising sun. 

In the days that would come, rumors abounded about that night. Many would wonder who their mysterious saviors truly were. Some said one thing, some another, but none could come to a consensus. All they knew was that they had saved the kingdom.

Dundrasil righted itself, recovering and rebuilding. The king and queen sent parties asking about their saviors, but all returned with naught to show for it but empty hands. The rumors had spread across Erdrea by then, of the eight who appeared out of the night and vanished with the dawn. Some said that they saw them in their town, from Sniflheim to Lonalulu, solving problems, killing monsters and disappearing as quickly as they came. None knew their names, and only had vague descriptions of their faces, but all knew them as a force for good.

A phrase spread too, a name for this group—The Saviors of Erdrea.


End file.
